How to Remove Comments in Word: Work Without Distractions
Knowing how to remove comments in Word is a useful skill for anyone collaborating on documents. Comments are one of the best collaborative add-ons in Microsoft Word — they can be used to pass messages such as a recommendation on changing the default font or making a checklist. In essence, using comments in Word aids seamless workflow between teams and can even serve as pointers or reminders when working on a lengthy document.
However, as handy as they are, they can be a little distracting or even redundant sometimes. And you know what’s best to do when that’s the case? Tuck them away!
Word gives you the options to either hide comments or discard them entirely. This guide covers both approaches so you can decide which method works best for your situation.
How to Hide Comments in Microsoft Word
If your goal is to focus on your document and not be distracted by a comment whose content you’ve already imbibed, hiding the said comment is the way to go. It’s worth knowing upfront that hiding comments only changes what you see on screen — the comments themselves remain in the file and can reappear when markup is turned back on or when the document is opened in a markup view. There are two ways to go about hiding them, which are as follows:
Disabling Show Comments
This option in Word hides the comment and replaces it with an indicator that you can click to access the comment again anytime. Go to the Review tab at the top of the screen and select Show Comments in the Comments section.
Doing this tucks the comments away from the side pane and replaces them with a small indicator icon in the document margin. In Word’s modern UI, comments can appear either as inline contextual bubbles or in a dedicated comments list pane — toggling Show Comments off collapses the pane but may still leave those small margin indicators visible, so the document does not appear entirely comment-free. This is ideal when you want to keep the comments available for reference without having them clutter your view while you write or edit.
Turning Off Markup
This is a better option if you want to hide the comments along with all markups while still keeping them intact. Navigate to the Review tab again and go to the Tracking section of the ribbon. Click the Display for Review drop-down to see three markup views that control what you see:
- All Markup — shows all comments and tracked changes in full.
- Simple Markup — collapses comments and revisions into small indicators in the margin, giving you a cleaner view while still signalling that markup exists.
- No Markup — hides all comment indicators and tracked changes from view entirely, so the document appears as though it has none.
Select No Markup from the options to hide everything at once. You can re-enable them by reversing the changes made thus far. According to Microsoft’s official documentation on tracking changes, the No Markup view is particularly helpful when you need to review the final appearance of a document before sharing it. Keep in mind, however, that No Markup only hides revisions and comments temporarily — it does not permanently remove them from the file.
How to Remove Comments in Word
You can delete comments in a Word document if you want to eliminate them entirely — especially those you’ve addressed and that no longer apply to the content. Understanding how to remove comments in Word properly ensures your final document is clean and ready to share. You have two options here, both of which are relatively easy to use.
Deleting a Single Word Comment
To delete a specific comment in Word, click the horizontal three-dots next to the pen icon on the comment and select Delete Comment or Delete Thread.
The first option deletes only the single comment you clicked on, while the latter deletes a comment and all of its ensuing replies. You can also navigate between comments using Review > Next or Review > Previous to move through the document, then click Delete in the Comments section of the Review tab — this removes only the currently selected comment, not the entire thread. To remove a parent comment along with all its replies, use the comment’s three-dot menu and choose Delete Thread as described above.
How to Remove All Comments in Word at Once
With this method, you can delete all comment threads in a document in one click, saving you the stress of deleting one thread at a time. It’s just as easy to pull off and is the most efficient approach when you need to remove comments in Word across an entire document.
All you need to do is go to the Review tab, click on the down-facing arrow beneath the Delete button, and then select Delete All Comments in Document from the options. Every comment and thread will be permanently removed in one action.
How to Remove Comments and Tracked Changes Before Sharing
If you’re preparing a final document to send to someone, it’s important to understand that comments and tracked changes are two separate items in Word — deleting all comments does not remove tracked edits, and vice versa. A recipient who opens the file in a markup view could still see every insertion, deletion, and formatting change recorded during editing.
To clean up tracked changes, go to the Review tab. You have two approaches:
- To review changes individually, use Review > Next or Review > Previous to step through each edit, then click Accept or Reject for each one.
- To accept everything at once, click the down-facing arrow beneath the Accept button and select Accept All Changes and Stop Tracking. This permanently bakes all edits into the document and turns off change tracking in one step.
Once tracked changes are resolved, remove any remaining comments by going to Review > Delete > Delete All Comments in Document.
One important warning: selecting No Markup from the Display for Review menu only hides revisions and comments temporarily — it is not the same as permanently removing them. Always use the Accept/Reject and Delete steps above before sharing a document you want to be completely clean.
Final Notes
There you have it! That covers everything you need to know about how to remove comments in Word. Now you can focus on your document without distractions from comments in the side pane of your screen. After completing your task in Word, you may want to have a hard copy of your work in full color. Here’s how to print in color on Word.
